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STUDYING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SHIITE AND SUFISM BASED ON THE
VIEW OF ALAMEH TABATABAEEI
Mohammad Turang1, Azam Khosh Surat Movafagh1, Abdollah Jalali1
1
Ph.D. Student of Religions, Qom
Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]
ABSTRACT
The relationship between Shiite and Sufism is one of the most important discussions as there is a
contrast range of views about this point; from their relationship to their contrast. Naturally, this
relationship can be historically and naturally studied and explained historically and naturally.
Alameh Tabatabaeei, the great character in the Shiite school, who tried to defined the ideas of
Shiite and explain its teaching(s) as Islam is one of the well-known character in the practical and
the theoretical theosophy and also studied the relationship between these two facts in the Islamic
societies. In order to reach this view and the relationship between them, this issue in terms of the
trend, behavior and also the teaching(s) must be studied. In the present paper, the authors try to
report the views of Alameh Tabatabaeei by a descriptive method and also analyze some of his
thoughts and ideas. As well, it can be observed that Alameh Tabatabaeei not only considered
Sufism and theosophy as the secondary things in Islam and the school of Shiite but also he did
not know some of the deviations in Sufism which resulted from ignorance or the other
motivations and also decreased the value of Sufism. In addition, the consistency of most of the
teaching(s) of theosophy toward God, refinement of soul in order to recognize God and
understand His Names, Imamate, etc. are important in this field and they are attributed to this
issue.
KEY WORDS:
Shiite, Sufism, Alameh Tabatabaeei, Theosophy, Inner Life.
Introduction
Sufism and theosophy are the real facts of Islam world and in this paper; the meaning of theosophy
is the Sufism of sciences which are developed and emerged in the domain of Islamic culture. It
seems that tendency toward the spiritual lie and the gnostic interest is an instinct which was granted
by God to each person. Since the current system in the natural world is tangible, so it is resulted
from the metaphysical world. Based on this issue, Islamic considered these two aspects means
apparent and inner ones in its teaching(s) as well, invited the humans and introduced these two
concepts until they can remove the layers of ignorance based on their piety and reach the world of
intuition. In this case, Alameh Tabatabaeei believed that: the spiritual life and gnostic interest are
the instincts as God gave us. The current system in the natural world is tangible and the world of
human is resulted from the spiritual worlds. The system of belief and practice which was defined by
Islam for humanity is resulted from a hierarchy of spiritual positions or ranks as the movement of
humans is within them (in terms of their sincerity and obedience) and when, the layers of ignorance
remove, they will see them "after death" (Alameh Tabatabaeei, 2009, p. 61). Studying the historical
roots of Sufism and Sufis in the history of Muslims is one of the topics which is interesting for the
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researchers of Sufism and Islamic theosophy and was resulted into discussions. Alameh
Tabatabaeei said that the main root of Sufism is in the field of piety in Islam as first, it became
prevalent among the followers of Mohammad (P.B.U.H) and then, it became as a school during the
eras of Caliphates under the especial conditions. In this case, the view of Alameh Tabatabaeei about
the history of Sufism in Islam in the first decades and the changes of this field as well as attributing
them to Imam Ali (P.B.U.H) and its occurrence until the 7th decades is that: this issue was seen as
Sufism among Muslims as its root was in the era of Khalifs; it was not only as Sufism but also as
pietism. But during the first part of Bani Abbad rule, this Sufism was accounted as a school in
terms of the emergence of great men such as Bayazid Bastami, Jonayd, Shabali, Ma'ruf Karxi, et
al., (Alameh Tabatabaeei, 2009, p. 110). In the other hand, the main point which was mentioned by
Alameh Tabatabaeei is that: he believed that the great men of this school attributed Sufism to Imam
Ali because he supposed that among the followers of Mohammad, only the words of Imam Ali are
enriched with the gnostic facts and the stages of spiritual life consists of various sources which
paved this path and for the people who interest this field, he presented the spiritual affairs. He
stated that: Imam Ali by training the followers and pupils such as Salmane Farsi, Ovey Qarani,
Komeil ibne Ziad, Rashid Hejri and Meysam Tamar can transfer the spiritual knowledge to them as
most of sage – in Islam – considered them as the important characters after Imam Ali and then, the
other such as Tavus Yamani, Malik ibne Dinar, Ibrahim Adham and Shaqiq Balxi in the 2nd century
(without pretending to Sufism and theosophy) were the well-known characters among people and
they did not conceal their educational relationship with the former group (Alameh Tabatabaeei,
2009, p. 110). Alameh Tabatabaeei said that the emergence of a tribe of Sufism at the end of 2nd
and 3rd centuries such as Bayazi Bstami, Abu Sa'eid Abalkheir, etc. regarding its method and
content with Sufism is different from the previous period and believed that this group was only
considered Sufism and theosophy and presented the words such as intuition which are not
apparently consistent with some of the sources of Shariat and for this reason, they were criticized
by the jurisprudents as well, related into problems for them. So, they persisted their path and the
topic of Tariqat was accounted as one of the important issues among Sufis and sages and its trait
was to define the original Sufism and integrate it with the truth facts. He said that: since the spirit of
Shiite about the gnostic points was directed within these groups but it could not introduce some of
its inner perfections like a spirit which is in the infected body. Therefore, the heads of Tariqat
ordered various commands or ideas which were not common in religion. Then, deviation in such
case occurred when they presented a topic about separating Tariqat from Shariat. The gnostic,
spiritual and scientific policy of the minority of Shiite due to the effect of such majorities in the
social environment were under the policy of Sunni and during that era, parts of Shiite theosophy
was changed into the color of Tariqat in Sunni (Alameh Tabatabaeei, 2009, p. 111). So, he
discussed the most important reasons of the emergence of original Sufism and said that some of the
factors such as integration of Islam with interest, kind and tendency, the penetration of spiritual
teaching(s) of Imams in particular Imam Ali, expressing the spiritual and gnostic facts by a group
of the pupils of Imams (P.B.U.H), the problems of Bani Omayeh era, excessive oppression affected
the attitude of people as they changed their approach and followed the spiritual affairs. So, Alameh
Tabatabaeei said that the spiritual perfections of humans is like a string of real facts which is
outside the reality of nature and the inner world which is the spiritual homeland is the widest world
than the world of materials and senses. But he said that the flow of theosophy and Sufism, at the
first instance, is associated with the Islamic teaching(s) and following the characters such as Imam
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Ali and his real pupils as free of separating Sufism and Shiite, an appropriate path was selected for
the spiritual life. Then, due to some various reasons, this flow of Sufism and theosophy followed
the other topics (because of their deviation) which decreased their importance among the other
Islamic sages and scholars as they declared their disagreement which exists up to now. Alameh
Tabatabaeei said that the emergence of innovation or Bed'at in this case, the inappropriate claims,
Tariqat against Shariat, ignoring tradition and forcing Bed'at, promiscuities and introducing a trend
or path for asceticism which was in contrast with Shariat affected this issue, however, they believed
that they were selected the best path. But the tendency toward corruption and also the emergence of
groups as Qalandariyeh among them were the factors that affected their approach and the religious
jurisprudents and scholars of Sunni challenged and stood up against them (means Sufis). For this
reason, Sufis faced scourge, imprisonment, under, gibbet or ostracism as the main reason was their
courage to the issues which were called Mysteries of Shariat. So, if their claim is right, means that
what they say is the core of religion or fact and the apparent features of religion are its outer layer,
and if removing the layer as well as expressing this core is correct, so the legislator or the person
who introduced it must do this task and declare it as Sufis until all people follow it and if this task
is wrong, so everything won't be remained except ignorance (Alameh Tabatabaeei, 2009, p. 113).
Alameh Tabatabaeei, in a historical sum-up and by the use of remained effects and works from
Sufism, pointed out to two flows as the original and the deviational/divergent one and also he
believed that the issues about the emergence of gnostic path was effective for one who studied the
books about trend and behavior and also the notifications or writings such as Attar, Nafahat and
Rashahat, Tabaqatol Axyar, Tarayeq, etc which involve the historical points of Tariqat (Alameh
Tabatabaeei, 2008, p. 97).
Studying the basics and beliefs of Islamic Sufism and theosophy
If we accept that the world is associated with reality and appearance, so the holy religion of Islam
as an eternal reality has two aspects means reality and appearance and human as the main flower of
this world accesses these two aspects and for this reason, s/he has two life(s) and two deaths as
well, his/her life is formed from different dimensions in terms of these two aspects. Alameh
Tabatabaeei said that God provided the materialistic life for the humans and also He equipped them
with the required equipment and also he did not discriminate between humans and humans. In
addition, He provided the spiritual life after the materialistic one as the perfection of materialistic
life of humans is limited to the emergence of his/her works along with the related consequences.
This issue is true of the perfection of spiritual life of humans. Addtionlly, Alameh Tabatabaeei
believed that Islam also attributed the creation of spiritual life to all people and it did not consider a
difference between each class. It extended the spiritual life to all positive and negative aspects of
human's life and invited humans to the definite trend providing the social life and positive acts and
it resorted to the notions which were stated indirectly in the common and general points because
our expressions or words are the generator of the general thoughts as were used in the materialistic
social life in order to provide agreement for transferring our mental concepts to each other (Alameh
Tabatabaeei, 2009, vol.: 1, p. 51). Alameh Tabatabaeei stated that this method was introduced in
Islam and a considerable population of Sunni and Shiite took this step. But what is clear is that we
should not put Sufism in the domain of the other religions as the especial one, for instance, it
cannot be said that the religions such as Sunni, Shiite, Sufism and the others are same but also each
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other has Sufis and non-Sufis. The real division as mentioned before is that three ways were
considered in order to study the realities of the world as the religions invite humans to them:
- The way of religions ideas and points which kept the facts in a simple invitation
- The way of logical reasoning with the innate logic which is the way of philosophical
thought and
- The way of soul refinement and religious Mojahedats which is the way of Sufism and
theosophy (Alameh Tabatabaeei, 2009, p. 70).
Alameh Tabatabaeei believed that the holy Quran in terms of most verses invite people in order to
pass the path of God and also following Mohammad (P.B.U.H) and his followers as well, the path
of believers is the path of God. If some of them ignore this path, they will face the divine
retribution. It can never be assumed that Hakim Ali Aletlaq does not introduce the path of Shariat
which was determined it as his way and also invite people to the path which is not well-known and
by believing this idea as I introduced the path of Shariat persists this path and the related trend. This
instance shows that each path which is along with negligence of Shariat path is not the path of God
and absolutely; it is the way of ignorance. Based on these points, the holy Quran introduced Islam
as the religion of knowledge, wisdom and creation such as Surah Rome, verse 30 and the other
verses and also explains that the real felicity of humans is attributed to one religion which provides
the special life style (vital acts) which are compatible with the creation of humans. Humans are the
unique creatures that are the essential components of the world and try to understand God. So they
must take an especial method in their life that must not be in contrast with the necessities of
creation because they are one of the components of this world (Alameh Tabatabaeei, 2008, p. 101).
For this reason, Alameh Tabatabaeei believed that this way is the path of Islam as its scientific and
basic issues are related to the creation of humans and the world and guides the humans (that are
created by God) in order to reach the stage of perfection by placing them in the freeway of felicity
and the trend of resurrection day. Islam provides the field of human growth in the level of
community and prohibited a string of behaviors and discourses which are not useful for his/her
evolution but Islam necessitated a hierarchy of acts which are effective for the growth of humans.
Therefore, no individual discrimination did not consider in Islam and also it did not allow each
group of people to select a method or way in their life and do various acts which are not in
accordance with Islam for example, they reject the marital life or prevent business or mutual life;
and they consider the other ways of life which are compatible with Islamic such as wine drinking,
slandering, dishonoring, … as the path of their trend in Islam in order to refine their soul. As a
whole, his idea about these religious contrasts is not the sins or bad deeds as the persons or people
commit them through disbelieving in the religious rules, but also he believed that these cases
covered the entire world and most of people from each class followed the ways of promiscuities
(Alameh Tabatabaeei, 2008, p. 101). He believed that what is being ordered by the books and
traditions – which are the guide toward our wisdom – is that there are facts beyond the apparent
features of Shariat that are called as the heart of those apparent features; this concept is not deniable
from the books and traditions. So this meaning is correct as the humans have a path in order to
reach those facts and the way is to use these apparent religious feature not only as we want but also
it must be based on the words of God as there must be the innate facts and real advantages or
profits and also, the apparent features must be explained as they do not reach His slaves to those
rights and facts. Therefore, Alameh Tabatabaeei considered appearance as conscious as the way for
reaching it and God did not consider the other ways for reaching his slaves to those facts. So based
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on the word of God in Quran (Nahl Surah, 89): This book and this Shariat did not neglect anything
from His slaves (Alameh Tabatabaeei, 1995, vol.: 5, p. 459). Alameh Tabatabaeei in order to
criticize the basics of Sufism and theosophy said: you can see a string of especial knowledge of
Shiite as there is not any sign of them in different books except the words of Imams (P.B.U.H) and
also there are different points in their basics which are not compatible with the Islamic knowledge.
So, these kinds of basics are such as mirror whereby the deficient will be shown on its surface.
Such mirror shows the obvious face but it does not provide the complete conformity. In the other
hand, he added: since the method for studying some of them in the practical and ideological
knowledge of books and tradition is the general method and it does not have a background in the
scientific and educational school of Imams, therefore they could not use the path of soul's
knowledge and soul's refinement from the points of common law and receive the required orders
from books and traditions. Accordingly, in terms of the importance of wish in different stages of
"Trend and Behavior" and the various situations of Saliks, different orders of the Sheikhs of Tariqat
were issued which have not a background among the legal orders of Islamic (Ibid, p. 91). The result
of this point is that; since some of Sufism have the same idea with Shiite about the teaching(s) of
religion as well as protecting the ideas of Shariat in order to gain the facts of Islam teaching(s) and
the heart of the world but some of Sufism or a group of such tribes are in contrast with the ideas of
Shariat as Alameh Tabatabaeei noted: we cannnot call Sunni as Shiite, however, there are various
points about the religion of Shiite. So what is so clear in this case is that most of the followers of
Sufism believe in Imam Ali and they follow this great Imam (Ibid, p. 71).
The practical and behavior method of Sufism and its similarities in Shiite
Alameh Tabatabaeei believed that since theosophy is from Islam which is an extensive component,
so its expressive forms are different. The fact of theosophy is resulted from Imam Ali. So
theosophy from traditions and books is a method which is based on the piety of obedience and it
follows the rule of Islam. Therefore, in the changing or divergent Sufism, Tariqat is against Shariat
which is about music, happiness, dance, etc and in some cases; it recalled the failure of tasks. In
general, Alameh Tabatabaeei considered the relationship between the bases of religion means
Divinity, the Unseen world and the path of Sufism and for this reason; he believed that Sufism
emerges among all religious tribes of the world such as Buddhists. He stated that; each tribe gives
the power of controlling the world to the metaphysical one (world) through each way and bows
God as the Creator of the world; and also some of them followed the abstinence or Mojahedat in
order to find out the hidden mysteries of this world and ignored the materialistic or sensual
pleasures except refining their souls. This is Sufism however it is differently defined in each tribe.
Naturally, this path was emerged in Islamic and a considerable population or community of Sunni
and Shiite followed this path. The important point is that we should not consider Sufism as the
other religions for instances, Shiite, Sunni, etc. are the same but each of the Islamic religions is
along with Sufism or non-Sufism. In comparing the spiritual points of the textbooks of religions, he
added that the main texts of Islam more than the other texts described the eternal felicity of
humans. Emergence of the refinement method in Islam, without attributing it to India or the other
part, will be so natural and in general, Saliks divided the path of right into two parts as the first one
follows the materialistic instincts and the latter one seeks the fact of soul. This recent group divides
into two sections: the people that the reason of their trend is toward themselves and also interest
this scinece and the others who consider the knowledge of soul as the mean in order to recognize
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God. Alameh Tabatabaeei, in order to find the common points between Shiite and Sufism, added
that: there are various sources about the effects of Sufism which are not in agreement with Shiite
and one of them is the subject of "Pole/Core". As Sufis believed that in each period, a presence of a
human – character – is required to take the responsibility of Velayat and transfer its fact as the
world believes in him/her. This character is called as Imam in the sect of Shiite that Muslims
believe in him (Alameh Tabatabaeei, 2008, p. 71). In addition to explanting the practical method
and trend for considering the real facts as the religions try to limit our attention toward them, there
are three methods in such case as each of them has their followers:
- The way of religions ideas and points which kept the facts in a simple invitation
- The way of logical reasoning with the innate logic which is the way of philosophical
thought and
- The way of soul refinement and religious Mojahedats which is the way of Sufism and
theosophy (Alameh Tabatabaeei, 2009, p. 70).
He believed that the gnostic method or Sufism is based on the refinement of soul, the divine path
and approaching God and truth; in addition, it does not restore to the logical reasoning. So, it can be
said: since the path of soul's knowledge is a way in order to recognize God and His names and also
reach the spiritual perfection but also it is a way which was approved by God and His prophets.
This field is the reason of deficient in terms of two aspects toward the results of the Trend and
Behaviors and also the product of their spiritual efforts or Mojahedat:
- The obscure points in the text of practical and ideological texts were concealed and also
they were prevented the emergence of a hierarchy of pure facts. Then, their result was a
product which was full of contradictions.
- The method of the apparent features or notions of religions which were kept the facts in the
simple invitation and
- The logical reasoning with innate logic which is the path of philosophical thought and the
method of soul's refinement and the religious Mojahedats which is the path of theosophy
and Sufism.
Alameh Tabatabaeei believed that the gnostic method and Sufism is only based on the refinement
of soul, divine paths and approaching God to the path of rights and it does not depend on the logical
reasoning.
So, it is clear as the path of soul's knowledge is the way for recognizing God – right – His names
and reaching the spiritual perfection, so it is the acceptable path of God and His prophet. This issue
leads into deficient in the results of trend and behaviors and also the result of Mojahedats; the
obscure points in the text of practical and ideological texts were concealed and also they were
prevented the emergence of a hierarchy of pure facts. Then, their result was a product which was
full of contradictions.
- The method of the apparent features or notions of religions which were kept the facts in the
simple invitation and
- The logical reasoning with innate logic which is the path of philosophical thought and the
method of soul's refinement and the religious Mojahedats which is the path of theosophy
and Sufism.
Since it is clear that the right knowledge is not appropriate to the general/public understandings
and the mysteries of the existence and the hidden secrets of the world are not being discovered for
the others; although the prerequisite of this feature is not to ignore the educational points of this
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field, the points must be transferred to the others indirectly by observing the situations of the others
and also their rights. This is a theory which was approved by the common sense as well as the
books and traditions. God in His words (Surah Ra'd) – in an instance which is about the current
tradition sends down the rain of existences on the land (means the real knowledge) in order to train
his slaves as the real rain which is falling from the sky and causes floods in the path of valleys and
rivers in which you face more foams that is integrated with water. In such instance, foam refers to
the absurd which are not useful for the people and what is remained it the pure water as useful for
people (Alameh Tabatabaeei, 2008, p. 99). This instance indicate that the religious points were
arranged so that all people with different perceptions can use them and each person in terms of their
capacity can access and understand them as well, the other verses indicates such meaning.
Mohammad prophet in hadith of Beinol Faiqin said: we speak with people in terms of their capacity
as they understand us. It is clear that this hadith is limited to the quality of the expression not its
quantity and the meaning of this hadith is that the religious expressions were uniformly distributed
and Mohammad prophet did not focus on one of his nations or want to teach them 100 religious
words or more than it. But the point is that this issue is the same and each person based on his/her
understanding has a specified address. In the other words, holy Quran invites the people in order to
pass the path of God and His prophets and if the people reject this path, they will face retribution of
God. It can never be assumed that Hakim Ali Aletlaq does not introduce the path of Shariat which
was determined it as his way and also invite people to the path which is not well-known and by
believing this idea as I introduced the path of Shariat persists this path and the related trend. This
instance shows that each path which is along with negligence of Shariat path is not the path of God
and absolutely; it is the way of ignorance. Based on these points, the holy Quran introduced Islam
as the religion of knowledge, wisdom and creation such as Surah Rome, verse 30 and the other
verses and also explains that the real felicity of humans is attributed to one religion which provides
the special life style (vital acts) which are compatible with the creation of humans. Humans are the
unique creatures that are the essential components of the world and try to understand God. So they
must take an especial method in their life that must not be in contrast with the necessities of
creation because they are one of the components of this world (Alameh Tabatabaeei, 2008, p. 101).
Conclusions
Based on the words of Alameh Tabatabaeei, it can be concluded that Sufism must not be along with
the other religions because each of the Islamic one has the Sufis or non-Sufis. Sufis try to deliver
the control of the existence of this vast world to the other power such as metaphysic and bows in
front of God. In such case, some of them follows the path of abstinence for finding the hidden
secrets and also ignore the sensual wills. This work means Sufism, however; it has other names
among each tribe. Naturally, this method was emerged in Islam and a considerable community of
Sunni and Shiite followed this path. Based on the aforementioned points, and the view of Alameh
Tabatabaeei, Sufis are not Shiite, even though, there are various texts about Shiite in such case.
What is so obvious is that most of the followers of Sufism are considering the ideas of Imam Ali
and also follow his path. And there is not any reason to reject this issue and ignore it because of the
deficient which were common among this tribe.
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